The finance ministry has prepared an action plan to boost central excise revenue collection which includes unlocking of tax arrears, strengthening the anti-evasion machinery, stepping up vigilance on evasion prone commodities and liquidation of cases under provisional assessment among others.
The ministry has already sent directives to the Directorate General-Anti-Evasion and the various central excise commissionerates, apprising them of the action plan which is aimed at mobilising revenue to meet the target collection figures. The move to mobilise additional revenue through administrative measures comes in the wake of a massive shortfall in collections during the first four months of this fiscal year. According to the ministry, the April-July excise collections stood at Rs 14,013 crore, indicating a shortfall of Rs 233.75 crore from the target collection.
Though the April-July figure for 1998 is favourable compared to the Rs 12, 881.40 crore collected during the previous corresponding year, it nevertheless indicates a shortfall from expected collection by 5.24 per cent.
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The revised target for excise revenue for this fiscal year 1998-99 has been fixed at Rs 56,800 crore, about 18.78 per cent higher than the actual collection of the previous fiscal year. According to a senior official in the revenue department, the indications in excise collections during the first four months has been disappointing, though the tentative figures for August shows an uptrend. Thus, meeting the higher revenue targets as set by the government would be an uphill task and the central excise department needs to be sufficiently geared to achieve it.
"The plan has been formulated keeping in mind the fact that business in the country was going through a downslide and additional revenue could be mobilised only by employing administrative mechansims", he said.
The ministry aims to unlock at least 25 per cent of the total excise revenue arrears which amount to over Rs 6000 crore. This would contribute around Rs 1500 crore to the exchequer.
Besides, it has decided upon liquidation of cases under provisional assessment which is expected to generate excise revenue to the tune of Rs 3000 crore.
Strengthening of the anti-evasion machinery is an important item on the government's agenda. "We have already informed the Directorate General-Anti Evasion that the anti-evasion machinery has to be strengthened to mobilise additional revenue. All the commissionerates have been duly informed by the DGAE regarding this matter", he said.
The ministry has also directed the commissionerates to step up vigilance on evasion prone commodities like tobacco products and copper wires. The department has, in fact, been asked to fix targets for these commodities and step up thier anti-evasion machineries to deal with these industries. The ministry has also asked the commissionerates to speeden up the disposal of pending cases. This is expected to unlock around Rs 1000 crore revenue which is at present caught up in various litigations.